Construction in China

Over half of the world’s cranes are in China. (Not the birds, the construction rigs.) No where is more intense than Beijing. With the 2008 Olympics approaching, every troublesome neighborhood has been leveled in the name of “development”. While construction is amazingly fast, safety regulations are almost non-existent.

One night, around eleven o’clock, as I walked back from the subway, I noticed a group of about a dozen Chinese, some standing, others in lawn chairs, staring at a wall. As I approached the scene, I noticed a man with a large hammer on top of the wall sledging away at the bricks. Not only was the worker wearing no protective helmet or goggles, but he was hammering the wall away directly toward the hoard of onlookers. I just shook my head and avoided the projectiles.

Two days later, the wall was completely gone and two men were shaping cement steps. Four days later, a nut shop selling freshly roasted goodies. Only a small section of brick remains on the far left of the steps as a reminder of the wall that had stood solidly six days earlier. In less than a week, a bedroom had been turned into a profit making venture.